Untamed

His eyelids opened halfway.

'Can you hear me?'

Stark's nod was barely perceptible. His bloody lips tilted up in a ghost of his sarcastic, cocky smile. 'Kiss me again, Zoey,' he whispered.

'You have to listen to me.' I bent my head down so that I could speak right into his ear. 'This might not be the end for you. At this House of Night, fledglings die, and then they are reborn to another kind of Change.'

His eyes opened farther. 'I—I might not die?'

'Not for good. Fledglings have been coming back. My best friend did.'

'Keep Duch safe for me. If I can, I'll come back for her, and for you—' His words ran out in a red river of blood hemorrhaging from his mouth, nose, eyes, and ears.

He couldn't talk anymore, and all I could do was hold him in my arms as his life drained away. It was as he was taking his last, gasping breath that Damien, followed by Dragon Lankford, Aphrodite, and the Twins, burst into the field house.

CHAPTER 13

Aphrodite reached me first. She helped me to my feet as Stark's dead body slid heavily from my lap. 'There's blood on your mouth,' she whispered, handing me a tissue from her purse.

I wiped my lips and then my eyes, right before Damien ran up to me.

'Just come with us. We'll get you back to the dorm so you can change your clothes,' Damien said. He moved to one side of me, taking my elbow firmly in one of his hands. Aphrodite was on my other side and had another viselike grip on my other elbow. The Twins had their arms wrapped around each other's waists, trying hard not to cry.

Some of the Sons of Erebus had arrived with a dark stretcher and a blanket. Aphrodite and Damien were trying to pull me from the building, but I resisted them. Instead I watched, crying silently as the warriors gently picked up Stark's blood-soaked body and laid it on the stretcher. Then they covered him with the blanket, pulling it over his face.

It was then that Duchess lifted her muzzle to the sky and started to howl.

The sound was horrible. Duchess filled the blood-soaked night with sorrow and loneliness and loss. The Twins immediately burst into tears. I heard Aphrodite say, 'Oh, goddess, that's so terrible.' Damien whispered, 'Poor girl . . . ,' and then he, too, began to cry softly. Nala had crouched close to the grief-stricken dog and was watching her with big, sad eyes as if she wasn't sure what to do.

I didn't know what to do, either. I felt weirdly numb, even though I couldn't stop crying, but I was getting ready to pull free of my friends and go to Duchess to try to figure the impossible out, when Jack rushed into the field house. He skidded to a stop. His mouth fell open in shock. One hand went to his throat, and the other pressed against his mouth, futilely trying to stop his gasp of horror. He stared from the shrouded body on the stretcher, to the bloody sand, to the mourning dog. Sniffling, Damien squeezed my arm and then let go of me to start toward his boyfriend when Jack, ignoring everyone and everything else, ran over to Duchess and dropped to his knees in front of her.

'Oh, honey! My heart is just broken for you!' he told the dog.

Duchess dropped her muzzle and looked long and steadily at Jack. I didn't know dogs could cry, but I promise you Duchess was crying. Tears were leaving dark, wet streaks from the corners of her eyes down her face and muzzle.

Jack was crying, too, but his voice sounded sweet and steady when he told Duchess, 'If you come with me, I won't let you be alone.'

The big blond Lab stepped forward slowly, as if she'd aged decades in the past few minutes, and laid her head against Jack's shoulder.

Through my tears, I watched Dragon Lankford touch Jack's back gently. 'Take her to your room. I'll call the vet and get something that will help her sleep. Stay close to her—she is grieving just like a cat will who loses her vampyre. She's a loyal girl,' Dragon continued sadly. 'His loss will be hard for her.'

'I—I'll stay with her,' Jack said, wiping his face with one hand and petting Duchess with his other. Then Jack wrapped both arms around the big dog's neck as the warriors carried Stark's body from the field house.

It was only as they left the building that Neferet showed up. She was looking flushed and breathless. 'Oh, no! Who is it?'

'It is the new fledgling, James Stark,' Dragon said.

Neferet moved to the gurney and folded the blanket back. Everyone else was looking at Stark, but I couldn't make myself see his dead face, so I didn't take my eyes from Neferet. I was the only one who saw the flash of triumph and pure, undisguisable joy that radiated from her face. Then she drew a deep breath and turned back into a concerned High Priestess, saddened by the loss of a fledgling.

I thought I might throw up.

'Bring him to the morgue. I will see that he is properly tended,' Neferet said. Without looking at me, she snapped, 'Zoey, be sure the boy's dog is cared for.' Then she motioned for the warriors to proceed and followed them from the field house.

For a second I couldn't speak. Her heartlessness mixed with Stark's death had cut me badly. I guess some little part of me, especially at a time like this when something unspeakably awful had just happened, still wished that she was the woman I'd believed her to be when I first met her—the mother who would love me for who I am.

I watched them carry Stark's body out and wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. There were people who needed me. People I'd made promises to. It was time I faced the fact that Neferet had gone bad and stopped being so damn weak.

I turned to Damien. 'Stay close to Jack tonight. He needs your help more than I do.'

'You'll be okay?' Damien asked me.

'I'll take care of her,' Aphrodite said.

'So will we,' both Twins said together.

Damien nodded, hugged me hard, and then went to Jack. He crouched next to his boyfriend and the dog and, hesitatingly at first, then with more confidence and warmth, began to pet Duchess.

'You're real bloody, you know?' Aphrodite said, pulling my attention from the heartbreaking scene of Damien and Jack trying to comfort Stark's dog.

I glanced down at myself. I'd stopped smelling the blood after I'd kissed Stark. I'd put it out of my mind so that the sweetness of it didn't drive me crazy, and I was surprised to see that my clothes were dark and sticky with his lifeblood.

'I need to get these clothes off,' I said, sounding way shakier than I'd meant to sound. 'I need a shower.'

'Come on. I'll let you visit the spa,' Aphrodite said.

'Spa?' I asked stupidly, not able to wrap my mind around what the hell she was saying. Stark had just died in my arms and she wanted me to go to a spa?

'Didn't you know I redid my bathroom shower?'

'Maybe Z wants to shower in her own room,' Shaunee said.

'Yeah, maybe she wants her own stuff around her,' Erin said.

'Yeah, well, maybe she doesn't want to remember that the last time she showered off blood, alone, in her own room, was after her best friend died in her arms,' Aphrodite said. Then she added smugly, 'Besides, I know for damn sure she doesn't have a step-in marble Vichy shower in her room, because mine is the only one on campus.'

'Vichy shower?' I said, feeling a little like I was walking through a bad dream.

Shaunee sighed. 'It's like a little slice of heaven.'

Erin gave Aphrodite an appraising look. 'You have one in your bathroom?'

'Part of the perks of being filthy rich and very, very spoiled,' Aphrodite said.